The Humble Greatness of Copywork

 Hello, friends! 

Don't you wish there was a non-stressful, easy-to-plan, easy-to-implement way to address multiple disciplines with your kids that would also give them valuable instruction in wisdom and godliness (especially right now, when you’re DONE...except maybe you can’t quite be done)? 

SURPRISE! There is!!! It's copywork!

Now, hear me out. I know that copywork has a bad rep, and I have to admit, when it initially passed my radar as I was pondering handwriting and language arts, I thought some scene out of Anne of Green Gables after she'd broken the slate over Gilbert's head. So yes, it has taken me a few years to fully jump on the copywork train. But I have seen the light, ya'll, and I'm going to share my realizations with you.

When I say copywork, it is genuinely as simple as it sounds. All we're talking about here is that same, age-old practice of having the teacher write out an original, and the student copies it, stroke by stroke, however many times. This practice has been used to teach reading writing for millennia (or longer!) across a spectrum of cultures, and I think it's a shame that it has largely been abandoned in our culture. I have found it especially perfect in a homeschool setting (that is to say, the one-room-schoolhouse model, with multiple age-groups in one room) and it will address at least seven subjects at once. Not sold yet? Read on!

Handwriting, (i.e. Penmenship)

Possibly the most obvious discipline from copywork, and by no means the least important. I'm going to be honest with you--one reason we started with this for our handwriting practice was to save money. Instead of filling in workbooks, the student can copy from someone with mastery of the written language (that's you, mom!) and I would argue that it has several advantages over workbooks. First, my pet peeve with workbooks is they teach kids to write in a totally unnatural way--no one forms their letters like a computer! But if a child learns to form letters like an actual human, it just...clicks. Not to mention, it makes ME more thoughtful with my handwriting, which has long been something I wanted to improve! 

We are now at a level where we're ready to start learning cursive (which I'm VERY excited about) and I have definitely seen an improvement in myself as I do this with my kids--and they are inspired as they see mom doing the same exact school work WITH THEM. It's also helped me to have more compassion as they are struggling to learn discipline and new skills as I have to unlearn and relearn bad writing habits...and to do that, I have to take it slow. And for working with the kids on this, the slower the better. I'm a strong believer that teaching kids to write not only legibly but beautifully, is a valuable and dying skill and a key aspect of literacy.

Spelling and Punctuation

With every work copied, we're also learning spelling and punctuation! This is valuable in phonetics and in seeing the idiosyncrasies of language. Your kids think you're practicing handwriting, but you're secretly also teaching them spelling and punctuation. Sneaky momma!

I, personally, really appreciate this aspect because I loathed those workbooks and spelling lists and tests (my sister was especially good at them, so perhaps there was a teensy bit of competition that jaded me). It's not that the kids memorize every word and jot they copy, but they start to recognize it. It's almost an organic way to learn (much like the voracious reader who doesn't know how to spell a word or comma right, but he certainly can recognize when it is wrong, which is also useful!) This one takes practice and patience, but let the copywork take its course and you'll begin to see the results!

Grammar

Same as Spelling and Punctuation, above. Copywork may not teach the technical terms like noun, verb, gerund, or subordinate clause, but proper grammar is when language is being used correctly. Those terms are describing the proper use of language; it's a label we attribute to a thing after the fact. Seeing good samples of language is setting the pattern in their minds, and this will aid you when you do start to give them the names of the parts of speech in grammar. 

Creative Writing

Have you ever noticed that kids have trouble with creative writing? We went through a stage where I tried to have them write more than one-word answers to questions like, "What was your favorite thing we did this summer?" but it was like pulling hens' teeth (as my momma would say). Yet it's clear that my kids are ridiculously creative, they're constantly making up stories! But somehow, trying to get it on-demand...it was not happening.

Demanding creative expression from kids is difficult, and I have ultimately come to the conclusion that it is unhelpful to demand it of them. There are much better ways to expand and nurture their creativity and language skills. I would argue that expecting long and wordy answers to questions about their favorite food created a generation of adults who despise writing. The majority of the adults trained to write this way can't (or won't) write a simple letter or email using correct grammar, and there's no wonder! (This is part of the broken worldview that we're supposed to find something within ourselves from which to create, and let's be honest, as Christians, we know what's deep within us, and it ain't pretty. But that's a diatribe for another day.)

Contrast the modern man's writing--or lack thereof--to examples of writing we have from history. Look at letters from women in America during the revolutionary war. They had very little opportunity for formal education, and yet the letters are full of good grammar, understandable, complex and beautiful sentence structure, and it makes sense. Another example would be letters and journals from mid-19th century Civil War soldiers. They were dirt poor, but the average soldier still wrote home (imagine that of college age students today!), and used good spelling, sound and thoughtful grammar, and a surprising amount of literary beauty. How many high school graduates today are capable of this? And supposedly, our educational opportunities are significantly more broadly available today! But back then, people weren't asked to, "Write about your summer vacation;" to learn good writing skills; they were taught by copywork, and then they grew up able to express themselves clearly and beautifully, freely and without hesitation. 

I'm just saying, even if it DOES run against the current trends of education, I think there's a good argument for teaching good and creative writing through copywork. We teach them to talk by copying grown-ups, I think it's just might also the best way to teach them to write. 

Beauty in Literature

Similarly, but slightly different; I know it's pretty common for us to recognize the value of exposing our children to great literature by reading it to them, or having them read it, but how much more so do they learn it by copying it, word by word? I would especially recommend the value of having our children write out Scripture so that they are putting the best possible use of language into their hearts and minds. Surely we can do better than the generic workbook samples of, "The dog ran after the cat." Seriously!??

Character

Last, but most importantly, the best part of copywork is the material the kids are copying. For more than 2,000 years--really, until the last two or three generations--western civilization realized that education is primary MORAL training; the academics really are quite secondary. Copywork lessons have the ability to go to a child's heart. They don't have to write out inane things like "A bird ate a worm," when they could be copying out, "O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His mercy endures forever." (Sidenote: I know you have to start small for little hands, but believe me when I tell you; your kids will grow in their ability to copy if you put in the time to practice. Seriously! Don't be discouraged in the days of small beginnings--that's part of it!--but also don't be content to stay there.)

If you haven't read Kipling's poem The Gods of the Copybook Headings, it's a great insight into the formation of his moral compass. It started from a childhood education which leaned heavily on copywork, using much Scripture for kids to copy (and by the way, Kipling turned out pretty good at creative writing, I guess...)

So all in all, yes, I highly recommend copywork. 

It fascinates me that something so simple can be so profitable! If your kids are anything like mine--ahem--you might find yourself needing to ease into copywork; We started with short things (I think the first copywork we did was just their names and our address). I generally start by having them copy things out as many times as they are years old, and then we expand from there. I also try to keep it from being too monotonous by taking part myself and keeping the exercise conversational, at least initially discussing what we're writing (and what it means). I also usually take the opportunity to have tea (and cookies) on the table so that it's a cozy sort of experience. Finally, we almost always have music playing while we do our copywork (right now we're listening to Handel's Messiah and Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker, which are just the right background for this kind of thing. 

I hope this gives you ideas and encouragement to try copywork in your homeschool! 

Much love!

This post was originally published in the Home School Corner of cbcwm.blogspot.com.